Wildflower Identification Guide (Blue)

Coarsegold, California
Revised 6-27-09

NOTES Baby Blue-Eyes (Closeup)	Baby Blue-Eyes Nemophila menziesii Waterleaf family	NOTES Bachelor's Button (Closeup)	Bachelor's Button, Leaves AKA Cornflower Centaurea cyanus Sunflower family
NOTES Sierra Bluecup (Closeup)	Sierra Bluecup, Leaves AKA Large-Flowered Bluecup Githopsis pulchella ssp. campestris Bluebell family	NOTES Blue Curls (Closeup)	Blue Curls, Leaves AKA Vinegar Weed Trichostema lanceolatum Mint family
NOTES Blue-Dick (Closeup)	Blue-Dick AKA Common Brodiaea Dichelostemma capitatum Lily family	NOTES Elegant Brodiaea (Closeup)	Elegant Brodiaea AKA Harvest Brodiaea Brodiaea coronaria Lily family
NOTES Deerbrush (Closeup)	Deerbrush AKA Buckbrush, Mountain Lilac, California Lilac Ceanothus integerrimus Buckthorn family	NOTES Fiesta Flower (Closeup)	Fiesta Flower, Leaves Pholistoma auritum Waterleaf family
NOTES Wild Blue Flax (Closeup)	Wild Blue Flax , Leaves AKA Western Blue Flax Linum perenne Flax family	NOTES Bird's-Eye Gilia (Closeup)	Bird's-Eye Gilia Gilia tricolor Phlox family
NOTES Blue False Gilia (Closeup)	Blue False Gilia, Leaves AKA Dense False Gilia Allophyllum gilioides Phlox family	NOTES Foothill Gilia (Closeup)	Foothill Gilia, Leaves AKA Blue Field Gilia Gilia capitata Phlox family
Foothill Gilia, Variant		NOTES Grass Nut (Closeup)	Grass Nut AKA Wally's Basket, Ithuriel's Spear Triteleia laxa Lily family
NOTES Foothill Larkspur (Closeup)	Foothill Larkspur, Leaves AKA Western Larkspur Delphinium hesperium Buttercup family	NOTES Prickly Lettuce (Closeup)	Prickly Lettuce, Leaves AKA Bitter Lettuce, Opium Lettuce, Poison Wild Lettuce Lactuca serriola Sunflower family
NOTES Bentham's Lupine (Closeup)	Bentham's Lupine, Leaves AKA Spider Lupine Lupinus benthamii Pea family	NOTES Miniature Lupine (Closeup)	Miniature Lupine, Leaves Lupinus bicolor Pea family
NOTES Sierra Lupine (Closeup)	Sierra Lupine, Leaves AKA Gray's Lupine Lupinus grayi Pea family	NOTES Silver Bush Lupine (Closeup)	Silver Bush Lupine Lupinus albifrons Pea family
NOTES Downy Navarretia (Closeup)	Downy Navarretia, Leaves Navarretia pubescens Phlox family	NOTES Gay Penstemon (Closeup)	Gay Penstemon, Leaves AKA Mountain Blue Penstemon Penstemon laetus Snapdragon family
NOTES Common Phacelia (Closeup)	Common Phacelia, Leaves AKA Distant Phacelia, Wild Heliotrope Phacelia distans Waterleaf family	NOTES Danny's Skullcap (Closeup)	Danny's Skullcap, Leaves Scutellaria tuberosa Mint family
NOTES American Speedwell (Closeup)	American Speedwell, Leaves AKA American Brooklime Veronica americana Figwort family	NOTES Birdseye Speedwell (Closeup)	Birdseye Speedwell, Leaves Veronica persica Figwort family
NOTES Tehachapi Wool Star (Closeup)	Tehachapi Wool Star AKA Many-Flowered Eriastrum Eriastrum pluriflorum Phlox family

NOTES:

American Speedwell

Bloom: May–September
Description: Perennial herb, ½–2'. Flowers in long sprays. Large leaves lancelike.
Special: Native. Marshy places.   BACK

Baby Blue-Eyes
Bloom: March–June
Description: Annual. Low plant, up to 1', with slender, leaning, branched stems. Leaves ½–3", pinnately divided into segments with teeth along edges, opposite. 5-petaled, pale or clear blue, bowl-shaped, ½–1", with white center; often with black speckles.
Special: Native. Starts easily from seed. Closely related to Five Spot and Fiesta Flower.   BACK
Bachelor's Button
Bloom: May–October
Description: Annual herb, 1–3'. Stems erect, slender. Leaves linear with light gray hairs. Fluffy flower heads are blue, purple, pink, or white.
Special: Not native. BACK
Bentham's Lupine
Bloom: March–June
Description: Annual herb, 2' or more. Typical blue flower with white banner splotch turning magenta with age, but leaves are unique. They resemble a spider's legs, long and extremely narrow, widely separated. Stalks are hairy.
Special: Native; limited to California. Major toxicity if ingested; can cause death. BACK
Bird's-Eye Gilia
Bloom: March–April
Description: Annual herb. Flowers are dime-sized. Narrow flower tube is yellow with five deep purple lines or splotches. The petals are white or pale blue with blue-violet or pink at the tips. The anthers are covered with deep-blue pollen. Leaves are narrow, threadlike.
Special: Native; limited to California. Grows in large patches, making a haze of color. Flowers close on cloudy days. BACK
Birdseye Speedwell

Bloom: April–August
Description: Annual herb, creeping or erect, to 12'. 4-petaled flowers are blue with dark lines and pale centers, borne on threadlike stalks from leaf bases. Leaves oval and scalloped, scattered along stems.
Special: Not native.   BACK

Blue Curls
Bloom: June–October
Description: Annual herb, 4–24". Flowers small and unusually shaped, delicately beautiful. Curved corolla tube is twisted, so that the long, curving stamens point toward the stem. The flower is blue except for the lip, which is white with blue dots leading inside (in our subspecies; some are entirely blue). Leaves are narrow and opposite.
Special: Native. Strong odor. Natives crushed fresh leaves and threw them into the water to stun fish.   BACK
Blue-Dick
Bloom: March–May
Description: Perennial herb, 12–24". Basal, grasslike leaves disappear early summer. Stem is leafless. ½" tubular blue flowers are tightly clustered together.
Special: Native.   BACK
Blue False Gilia

Bloom: April–June
Description: Annual herb, 4–18". Dark violet-blue flowers in loose heads (4–8"). Leaves linear with 2–5 pairs of simple linear lobes.
Special: Native. BACK
Common Phacelia
Bloom: March–June
Description: Annual herb. Finely haired, branched plant, glandular in upper parts. Fernlike leaves, ¾–4", opposite, coarsely toothed on erect stems. Flowers are in coils of broadly bell-shaped blue flowers, ¼", calyx with 5 unequal lobes, 5 round lobes on corolla, 5 stamens.
Special: Native. Can cause dermatitis. Not related to Heliotropes grown in gardens.   BACK
Danny's Skullcap
Bloom: March–July
Description: Perennial herb, 1–8". Dark blue corolla tube bent above a hairy calyx. Lower petal lip has a central notch. Leaves broadly oval, coarsely toothed margins. Velvety look and feel.
Special: Native.   BACK
Deerbrush
Bloom: April–July
Description: Shrub, openly branched. Up to 13', erect or spreading. Leaves lanceolate to ovate, alternate, to 2½", 3 main veins. Upper side darker than lower, which may be covered with fine, white hairs. Inflorescence is a branched cluster of white or pale blue saucer-shaped, fragrant flowers. The tiny flowers have 5 petal-like sepals and 5 spoon-shaped petals.
Special: Native. Sweet, spicy honey scent. Some species have thorns. Natives hardened the branches with fire, then used them as digging sticks.   BACK
Downy Navarretia
Bloom: May–July
Description: Annual herb, 4–12". Blue-purple flowers in a ball, with finely divided, dark-green sticky leaves below.
Special: Native; limited to California.   BACK
Elegant Brodiaea
Bloom: April–June
Description: Perennial, from a corm, up to 2'. 3–5 linear leaves (4–16") at base; usually withered by flowering time. Inflorescence is an umbel of fluorescent violet or blue-violet funnel-shaped flowers, each with 3 sepals and 3 petals, 1½" long. Prefers heavy soils.
Special: Native. Corms were an important staple food of natives.   BACK
Fiesta Flower
Bloom: March–May
Description: Annual herb, 1–4'. Taller & weaker version of its cousin, Baby Blue-Eyes. The flowers are a darker blue (to lavender or purple) than Baby Blue-Eyes. Leaves dandelionlike, with a swept-back jet look. The plant looks like a vine, but is simply weak-stemmed.
Special: Native. Shade-loving. Hangs onto nearby plants for support with its reverse-barb prickles. BACK
Foothill Larkspur

Bloom:   May–July
Description: 1–2'. Dark or pale blue flowers in spikes. The 2 lower petals are a rounded dome, heavily haired. Leaves narrowly divided into shiny green divisions. Rust-colored veins on underside.
Special: Native.   BACK

Gay Penstemon

Bloom:   May–July
Description: Perennial herb, ½–3'. Flowers blue-violet to pink to red-purple. Stems erect and distinctly sticky-haired.
Special: Native. Dry, open mountain slopes.   BACK

Grass Nut
Bloom: April�June
Description: Perennial herb, up to 3' long with basal, linear leaves. Leafless stems, pale blue or purple flowers in an open umbel. Individual flowers are almost 1" long.
Special: Native; limited to California. Natives prized the small corm for its nutty flavor.   BACK
Miniature Lupine

Bloom: Early Spring
Description: Annual or perennial herb. Small (4–16"), grayish, hairy, branched plant with palmately compound leaves. Pea flowers (3/8") are blue-violet & white, arranged in whorls in short, thick, conelike racemes.
Special: Native. Major toxicity; can cause death if ingested. Common companion to California Poppy.   BACK

Prickly Lettuce

Bloom: May–September
Description: Annual herb, 2–5'. S ingle tall, white stem has broad, gray-green, pinnate lobed leaves. Yellow prickles on both sides of leaves. Small yellow flower heads open only in the morning. Closed heads show blue on tip. Seeds are fluffy parachutes.
Special: Not native; invasive.   BACK

Sierra Bluecup
Bloom: May–June
Description: Annual herb, 2–8". Blue cuplike flowers.
Special: Native, limited to California. Most common the year after a forest fire.   BACK
Sierra Lupine
Bloom: May–July
Description: Perennial herb, �–2'. Banner petal has a bright yellow spot, sides slightly curved back. Leaves hairy, silvery to gray.
Special: Native, limited to California. Likes dry slopes. Major toxicity. BACK
Silver Bush Lupine
Bloom: Early Spring
Description: Shrub, to 3–4' and more. Silvery, hairy leaves consist of 6–10 narrow, pointed, widely separate leaflets as long as 1�". The large blue-purple flowers (¾") have a tightly reflexed banner in the center that is yellow or white, flecked with black, which turns red-purple with age. The tips of the long (to 1') flower spikes are silver, and flowers still in bud are a soft, fuzzy white.
Special: Native. Major toxicity.   BACK
Tehachapi Wool Star
Bloom: April–June
Description: Perennial herb, 4–16". Deep blue-violet funnel-shaped flowers have stamens attached at & between petal lobes. Leaves have 3�9 threadlike lobes.
Special: Native; limited to California.   BACK
Wild Blue Flax
Bloom: May–September
Description: Slender perennial, up to 30". Alternate linear leaves ¼–1" long. Five-petaled blue flowers, ¾–1½" wide, nodding in bud. Fruit contains 10 shiny brown seeds.
Special: Not native. Natives soaked the root for eye medicine, the stem for upset stomachs. They ate the roasted and ground seeds, and used the stems for cordage.   BACK

NOTES:

Bloom: May–September Description: Perennial herb, ½–2'. Flowers in long sprays. Large leaves lancelike. Special: Native. Marshy places. BACK

Bloom: April–August Description: Annual herb, creeping or erect, to 12'. 4-petaled flowers are blue with dark lines and pale centers, borne on threadlike stalks from leaf bases. Leaves oval and scalloped, scattered along stems. Special: Not native. BACK

Bloom: May–September
Description: Perennial herb, ½–2'. Flowers in long sprays. Large leaves lancelike.
Special: Native. Marshy places. BACK

Bloom: April–August
Description: Annual herb, creeping or erect, to 12'. 4-petaled flowers are blue with dark lines and pale centers, borne on threadlike stalks from leaf bases. Leaves oval and scalloped, scattered along stems.
Special: Not native. BACK